§ MR. TOTTENHAMasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether the report of the official valuator appointed by the Commissioners under the Land Act to assist them on the hearing of appeals is a public document, accessible to both parties to the appeal, and their counsel, and produced in Court for the information of all parties, as well litigants as judicial; and, whether, if this be the case, he will state to the House what objection there is to including the information given by these reports in the returns of appeal and judicial rents recently asked for?
§ MR. TREVELYANThe Land Commissioners inform me that the Reports of their official valuers are considered public documents after they had been handed to counsel on the hearing of an appeal and when the evidence is closed. They state that there is strong objection to including the information given in a valuer's Report in any Return to Parliament of judicial and appeal rents, as such information would be altogether misleading. The valuer values a holding as it stands, without reference to the provisions of the Land Law Act; whereas the Commissioners are bound to apply the principles laid down in the Act to the case before them, and to take into consideration all the evidence given—evidence of which the valuer is necessarily ignorant when making his Report. His valuation, taken apart from the provisions of the Act and from the evidence, and so given in a public Return, might produce a totally false impression.